February, 18 (morning). Deputies from opposition parties planned rose the question concerning returning to previous Constitution (2004) with limited powers of president during session of Verhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament). Protesters started movement to the Verhovna Rada for making circle around Parliament to show their support of returning to previous Constitution and demand reelection of President and Parliament. Speaker of the Parliament refused to register the consideration for a return to the old constitution. Deputies from opposition blocked the rostrum of Parliament demanded to consider their proposals. There were started confrontation between protesters and police, which was supported by titushky in same places with usage the stun grenades and other kind of weapons. Protesters also started used paving stones, Molotov cocktails and sticks. February, 18 (afternoon). After the battles between police and protesters in several places in governmental quarter with usage not only traumatic but military weapons people ran back to the Maydan. To this moment up to 7 people have been killed. Police launched an attack towards Maydan. Here is video how police and titushky with guns finish off to death the people – http://censor.net.ua/video_news/271640/desyatki_banditov_iz_militsii_i_titushek_nasmert_zabivayut_boyitsov_samooborony_v_mariinskom_parke_video Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced an ultimatum with the requirement to completely release maidan from protesters to 18 p.m. Metro was fully stopped. Police started block streets around Maydan. February, 18 (evening – night). Coordinators of protesters call to all people come to the Maydan and help to defend main protesters place (Maydan of Independence). Armored troop-carriers began to move toward the center of Kyiv. It was confirmed hundreds of wounded people from both sides. Also have been confirmed several death of policeman. Police started assault of Maydan at 8 p.m. with armored troop-carriers, water jet vehicles and guns. During negotiations between opposition leaders and president Yanukovich demanded to leave Maydan and only then to return to negotiations. Attempts to clean up the Maydan continues all night. Here is the video police (marked the same as titushky with yellow stripes) armed with the military weapon – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls74ne52xiI Here is the video attack the barricade by the armored troop-carrier – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoMUxGkBlf0 People in western regions of Ukraine started capture of governmental buildings including police and Security Service...

As violence flared late last month in Kiev after Parliament approved a draconian law against dissent, two of the richest men in this industrial city 300 miles to the east of the Ukrainian capital met in an expensive Italian restaurant that they own and made a fateful decision. The men, Hennadiy Korban and his partner Borys Filatov, decided to remove advertising videos featuring glamorous models from a large outdoor screen at an upscale shopping mall called Passage and replace them with a live broadcast of raucous antigovernment protests at Independence Square in Kiev. They also ordered their local properties to hoist the flags of the European Union and Ukraine, a gesture of open revolt in a Russian-speaking region where economic and political power have traditionally been united in looking more to Moscow than to Europe for guidance. Retribution, or at least some extraordinarily bad luck, swiftly followed. Hours after the flags went up on Jan. 25, all three of their company’s shopping malls in Dnepropetrovsk lost their electricity, and panicked shoppers scrambled through the dark for the exits. The video screen outside went dark, silencing the antigovernment chants from Kiev and, at least on the surface, restoring Dnepropetrovsk as a bastion of calm support for Ukraine’s embattled president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. Caught in a titanic tug of war for influence between Russia and the West, Ukraine is also being tugged in opposite directions by the forces facing off at the Passage mall in Dnepropetrovsk. In an economy dominated by a relative few wielding enormous wealth, the outcome of the struggle could well hinge on how many other businesspeople make the same switch as Mr. Korban and Mr. Filatov and join the street in rejecting Mr. Yanukovych’s tilt toward Russia. The defection of two provincial businessmen — motivated as much by resentment of the strong-arm tactics of rivals in league with the government as by lofty ideals — will not tip the balance of power in Kiev or even here in this city of more than a million people, its economy dominated by huge Soviet-era factories like Yuzhmash, a rocket maker still owned by the state. But it underscores how a protest movement that the government dismisses...

The message from Lesya Orobets Facebook page: “Yesterday a Regions animal struck me in the upper chest. It was a powerful blow. This was the second time that was assaulted. The first time was 10 days ago when walking to the Maidan with 3 of my colleagues, we were stopped by 5 Berkut members, and they grabbed and broke my camera, pushed me toward the floor and beat my coworkers. When the quickly raped YanukFraction was voting on the law on hostages, as it has become their tradition, they did not have 232 votes, there weren’t event 226 votes, so they had had 10-15 voting cards unused. I tried to prevent the fake voting, and it hit me with force in the upper chest into the shoulder (on photo, he is darkish and bald). With a professional, close, bandit style jab. That’s what you get, I had just off my bullet-proof vest in the Parliament of Ukraine. I admit, I was surprised, in life nobody ever prepared me for hand combat, it was not a requirement for an international lawyer. There was nobody around willing to defend me, no men were to be found. In time I left, I stabilized, it doesn’t hurt when I breathe any more. Today went ok , did not even hurt as you breathe. Next time, going into a session with the Regionsgang, it is best to wear a bullet-proof vest, a helmet, with a walkie-takie, to call backup help. Although the brothers from Self-Defense – Samooborona tell me that one will need a flamethrower, so that they will have a threatening good laugh. They are better at it, but my own field is closer to legislation and international treaty law. Nobody but you, yes, personally...